


Twisted Night

by devianta



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Blood, Don't try this at home kids, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Mentions of alcohol, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Sickness, Thunderstorms, Tornado, acespec natsume, empathetic/telepathic connections, injuries, madara gets slightly impaled
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:47:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26219605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devianta/pseuds/devianta
Summary: Worried that Nyanko-sensei might be in trouble, Natsume braves the storm to find his guardian.
Relationships: Madara "Nyanko-sensei" & Natsume Takashi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 54





	Twisted Night

**Author's Note:**

> A brief note: Once again I have borrowed AislinCeivun's human!youkai form of Madara, which appears in chapters 53 and 74 of her fanfic, "The Cat and His Boy." Chapter 74 contains a beautiful pic of him if you wish to know what he looks like. If you haven't read her stuff, you should; she's an amazing writer. Also, she's super nice for letting me borrow her things all the time.
> 
> This fic is connected to one of my other works, "Punch Drunk." You don't have to have read it for this work to make sense but there are allusions to events from that fic in this one.
> 
> With that said, I hope you find this fic enjoyable!

A heavy rain falls in sheets from the night sky. Lightning flashes briefly before vanishing, thunder following in its wake. A boy huddles beneath his comforter, curled up tight, listening to the howling wind and rain and thunder. With every flash of light that finds its way through his window he tries to make himself even smaller. It's of little use. The thunder is just as loud; the rain pounds the house just as much; the wind twists the trees into unfamiliar shapes just as easily as any human might fold origami paper. The boy trembles beneath the onslaught of the storm and his memories...

Memories of a shrine in a storm.

His guardian is not here. Out drinking, the cat said earlier in the evening before the storm hit. He'd be back before it got too bad. But it was bad now and his sensei has still not returned. The boy worries. What if a stream flooded and washed him away? What if the wind knocked a tree over and it fell on him? (He was so small in his maneki neko form.) 

A brilliant line of light connects cloud to ground somewhere a few streets over. The resulting crack of thunder shakes the boy's house; the boy chokes on his scream.

What if he was struck by lightening? 

The thought clutches the boy's heart in its fist and squeezes cruelly. Gritting his teeth, he throws the comforter off and quietly sneaks downstairs. The hallways are dark but the boy has long since learned the way. He makes his way to the front door, snagging a raincoat along the way. It's heavy and blue and new. Touko-san bought it for him last week after an ayakashi stole his old one. He hopes he doesn't wake her or Shigeru-san. But he has to find sensei. This storm is getting worse and worse by the second. Even though a scream is welling up within him at the thought of being out there... He'll still go out and call for his sensei. He'll call and call and call as long as it takes until he hears his name said in that silly cat voice.

The boy pulls his boots on and steels his heart. With a trembling hand, he opens the front door and is immediately greeted by a wall of water. The night is so dark and the rain is falling so heavily that the boy can't even see a few feet in front of him, let alone the house's front gate. At most, he can tell that the front yard is swamped. More than likely, some of the roads are flooded. But still...

Biting his lip, he steps out into the storm and closes the door behind him. He has to do this. 

Cupping his hands around his mouth, he calls, "Nyanko-sensei! Sensei! Nyanko-sensei! Where are you?!" 

He waits. 

The only answer he receives is another boom of thunder. A shiver runs down the boy's spine. He dashes across the yard and into the street. The water is up to his ankles and he isn't sure if it's a trick of the street light or just his imagination, but the sky is starting to look green. A recycling bin rolls past, carried on the wind. Thankfully, it's empty. The boy can barely see anything and can hear little more than the roar of the wind and water, the crash of too-near thunder, and his own panting breaths. 

"Sensei! Sensei! Nyanko-sensei!"

He turns left and races as quickly up the street as he can. It's difficult going. The wind pushes at him, nearly knocking him off his feet several times. The water drags at his heels. Every single step he takes is difficult. Still he persists, listening as carefully as he can for the sound of his sensei's voice, and watching for any hint of a round cat body.

After long minutes, he finds himself in a field, then a forest. Squelching mud pulls at his rain boots. The trees sway ominously above him. Glowing eyes peer at him from bushes but none try to stop him. Still he calls that familiar name and waits for the expected reply. Despite the water falling around him, his mouth is as dry as a desert. He stops at the top of a hill to cough and catch his breath. His chest is starting to ache and he knows that he'll likely come down with a cold. Touko-san will be upset. She definitely wouldn't want him running around out here in this storm but nevertheless here he is, cold and wet and coughing. When he finds his sensei he is going to give him a piece of his mind! 

Was he at home waiting for him even now?

He is about to call for him again when a strange snapping sound catches his attention. The boy looks up. Above him, a branch sways strangely, as though it is hanging on by a thread.

That looks dangerous, he thinks. It's the last thing he thinks before it falls, cracking him in the back and sending him tumbling down the hillside, head over heels into a ravine. 

When the boy comes to the first thing he notices is an oddly shaped, fuzzy white cloud hovering over his face. It's truly bizarre. It blinks slowly at him with gold eyes and bears a red mark on its forehead. The cloud watches him. He thinks it might be trying to tell him something but for some reason the words don't really make sense. They're garbled or being spoken from far away. The cloud nuzzles and sniffs him, poking at his limp body with a cold, wet nose. 

The movement jolts something and so the second thing the boy notices is pain. It leaves his mouth in a gasp. His head, his back, his legs... It all hurt! What happened? He thinks... He was on the hill. Then something fell on him. Where is he? 

He looks around. The hill is above him now. He's lying in the mud at its foot. Rocks and branches are scattered around him. The trees and the white cloud keep the rain off him somewhat but he's still soaked. His knees and head might be bleeding too but it's difficult to tell. He tries to sit up. The world sways sickeningly. 

The cloud says something in a scolding tone and pushes him back down into the mud with a furry white paw. Paw? Yes, that's a paw! He was looking for someone, someone important. Did he find them? The boy looks back up into the worried golden eyes of the cloud.

"I know those eyes... Sensei..." 

"Natsume," his sensei said softly. 

Natsume smiles. "That's me. Sensei, I think I fell." 

His sensei snorts. "You think? Whatever gave you that idea?" 

Natsume raises his hand and strokes his sensei's snout. Gold eyes close and the daiyoukai leans into the touch. "Hmm, dunno. Just a feeling."

"Little idiot, what were you thinking coming out here? I went home but you weren't there. I followed your scent and found you here lying in the mud. Do you enjoy making my job more difficult?" his sensei grumbles. 

"I was looking for someone. I was really worried if they were okay," Natsume replies after a moment. 

Gold eyes open. "Did you find them?"

Natsume nods. "Kinda. They found me." 

The daiyoukai huffs. "Is that so? Well, you don't need to worry about me. A little storm like this is nothing for a youkai as high class as me."

The boy chuckles. "I'll keep that in mind," a pause, "So, I don't have to worry about the cat that got his head stuck in a jar yesterday-"

"What?!"

"- or who fell face first into a pile of snow last winter."

"Th-that was-!"

"I definitely don't have to worry," Natsume continued wryly, while scratching his sensei under his chin, "about the cat who stayed up one late night last month watching movies with Shigeru-san and then insisted on fighting that chicken youkai and ended up taking a dozen eggs to the face." Slowly, carefully, Natsume levers himself up into a sitting position, and leans forward to reach that one spot that he knows his sensei loves to have scratched. Natsume feels the purr rumble through his arm when he finds it. "Is that right, sensei?"

"Yyyessssssss... Natsumeeee..." his guardian moans, eyes closed, rear leg thumping the ground rhythmically. 

Natsume gives him a knowing look, even as he keeps scratching that one spot. "Sure, sensei. If you say so." 

Suddenly the sound of the wind grows exponentially. What started out as a dull roar, like highway traffic, swells into a cacophony, not unlike a freight train rocketing down railroad tracks. Sensei's eyes snap open, pupils contracting, as he looks at something behind Natsume. The drenched fur on his back stands on end. The purr shifts into a growl that Natsume feels more than hears. He can't hear anything over the wind and his ears won't stop popping.

Natsume looks behind him and immediately wishes he hadn't. Between the flashes of lightning he can make out a wedge of rotating darkness. The trees around it sway back and forth, as if unsure which way the wind was blowing. Those closest lose branches and leaves or are even uprooted and tossed. One of those projectiles skids to a stop not two feet from where they're sitting. Natsume's heart nearly stops.

"Sen- sensei... It's a-" 

But Natsume isn't given the chance to finish his sentence. His guardian has already scooped him up into his mouth. Teeth close around him, blocking the chaotic storm from sight. He's completely enclosed in his sensei's mouth! 

"Sensei...!" He begins to say but chokes. "Ah! Your breath is awful!" 

"Natsume, are you sure you want to be insulting me right now?"

He has a point. Curled up on his side, knees tucked up against his chest, held down by a heavy tongue, he would be very easy to swallow. Even so, he isn't worried about that at all. He is far more worried about his sensei, who is racing through this storm towards while Natsume remains safely inside. He had come out to find his sensei but in the end he still needed his sensei to protect him. It was embarrassing!

The daiyoukai stumbles and grunts in pain.

"Sensei?! Are you okay? What was that?" 

"A tree branch," comes the pained reply. 

"A tree branch?"

"Yes, Natsume. A tree branch. A tree branch flung by a tornado at high rates of speed while I'm running away from it, drunk, and carrying a pain in the ass kid in my mouth! Now shut up! I'm trying to focus!" 

Natsume quiets but continues to worry. He can now feel a limp in his guardian's gait. His stomach churns. He stretches his arm out and places a hand on one of his sensei's teeth. At first, it's just to try and hold himself still. The uneven rocking motion is making his nausea worse and the last thing he wants to do is throw up in his sensei's mouth. But gradually he realizes that the barrier that normally prevents Natsume from sliding into his sensei's mind and memories, like he can with other ayakashi, seems thin and weak. He reaches out, pushing through the barrier, and feels the daiyoukai's body, as though it was his own. 

Natsume gasps. He can feel something sticking out of his sensei's leg. Part of the branch? The pain is intense, a stabbing burn that screams in Natsume's head. He has no idea how his sensei is able to run on that leg at all. Natsume knows that if it were him he would be on the ground crying. His own legs ache in sympathy. He wishes he could do something. But what?

"Sensei? Sensei, put me down. Let me carry you! I'm smaller; I'm less of a target! Please!"

The tongue lying over top of him grows heavier. "Shut up, Natsume! If you think I'm putting you down you're crazy!"

"Sensei, please! You're going to make your wound worse!"

He feels his sensei reach back through the connection and size up his own condition.

"Oh, you're not injured? Really??? Then how's your back doin- Ugh!"

Pain explodes across Natsume's side. No, sensei's side! Something hit them. A flickering image appears in Natsume's mind. It looks like part of a car but it's rusted and broken. Did someone abandon their car in the middle of the woods? One edge of the car fragment is covered in dark red blood. Natsume can smell the iron-tang of it heavy in the air. His stomach churns even more.

Natsume rolls onto his back and attempts to push the heavy tongue off of him but it won't budge. Instead it presses down even harder, squishing him against the bottom of the youkai's mouth. A frustrated growl emanates from deep in the daiyoukai's throat. 

"Stay still, you useless brat. If you don't I'll swallow you whole!" his sensei threatens. He feels the body shift around him as his guardian slowly stands. He holds himself stiffly, clearly favoring one of his legs. 

"And the Book of Friends too?" Natsume asks smartly.

"Oh, shut up!"

They're moving again but much slower, loping awkwardly through the forest. Natsume is surprised his sensei hasn't closed the empathetic connection between them. Perhaps he forgot about it. 

"Damn it," his sensei curses. "It's caught up."

Natsume focuses and peers out through his sensei's eyes. He's right. The wall of wind blown debris has gotten much closer. It's so close that Natsume can no longer tell where it ends or begins. Dread sinks low in his belly. Suddenly, Natsume wishes the tornado was simply a youkai that he and his sensei could fight and defeat as they have in the past. Natsume never thought that he could wish for such a thing but here he was wishing with all his might that this was something he could protect he and his sensei from. 

"Sensei, is there a ditch or something like that nearby?" Natsume asks.

Tired but still keen eyes scan the vicinity. "Yes, why?"

Natsume coughs. His chest feels weirdly tight. "Maybe," he rasps, "if you can find a low enough spot you won't be hit by as much of the debris."

His sensei gives a small nod. "Finally, a sensible suggestion!"

The daiyoukai skids into the water-filled ditch just as the tornado starts to pass over them. The roar is deafening. He can feel the wind tugging fiercely at his guardian, trying to lift him into the air, but somehow his sensei manages to remain planted in the earth. Each second feels like an hour, as Natsume lies curled in his sensei's mouth, hands covering his ears against the apocalyptic noises coming from outside his hiding place. When it finally ends, he doesn't even realize it. His ears are ringing and his sensei remains prone in the ditch. It doesn't occur to him that the tornado has passed until an image of blood swirling in dirty water flickers to life in his head.

His heart breaks.

With tears prickling in his eyes, Natsume gathers what little energy he has left, claps his hands, and presses them against the inside of his sensei's mouth.

"Sensei, I am giving you my spiritual energy. Please accept it."

Darkness gathers at the edges of Natsume's vision. Distantly, he can hear his sensei calling for him. In a detached sort of way, he recognizes that the voice sounds a bit stronger and is glad. With that knowledge, he allows the darkness to pull him down, down, down...

____

Time passes. Natsume remains lost to the world. The darkness holds him in its warm embrace, briefly lifting the curtain to reveal snatches of moments as they pass:

His sensei depositing his body carefully on the ground, saliva drenching every inch of him. His boots are missing. When did he lose them?

Strong, warm arms carrying him up the stairs. Long white hair tickling his cheek.

The feeling of being held against a broad, firm chest as water is poured gently over his head. Hands carefully scrubbing dirt and blood from his body. An all-encompassing feeling of safety and love.

A warm towel.

A soft bed.

A kiss tenderly brushed against his forehead.

_____

Natsume wakes to a cool hand against his forehead. A familiar voice tuts and something cold and wet replaces the hand. Water drips over his temples, over his ears, and through his hair. It tickles. Natsume opens his eyes and is greeted by the sight of Touko-san watching him, brow furrowed with concern. He made her worry again. If only certain cats didn't drink like fishes. If only he was stronger. 

"Touko-san," he tries. His mouth and throat feel like sandpaper and his body is stiffer than a corpse's. He feels terrible. How long has he been asleep? 

"Ah! Takashi-kun! You're awake! You had me, Shigeru-san, and Nyankichi-kun worried silly!" she exclaims. "Isn't that right, Nyankichi-kun?" She pets the cat sitting next to her. The youkai in disguise gives a happy purr but Natsume can see a slew of emotions passing through his eyes. They watch him so intently Natsume can almost hear the lecture his sensei is intending to give.

Shifting his focus back to Touko-san, he asks, "How long was I asleep?" 

"It's been two days! We woke up the morning after the storm and when you didn't come down for breakfast we became worried so I went up to check on you and found you lying here with a horrible fever. I found your raincoat; it was filthy. What happened, Takashi-kun? Why did you go out into that storm? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? You could have been killed!"

Guilt and shame well up in Natsume's heart. "I'm sorry, Touko-san. I was out looking for Nyanko-sensei. I didn't think it would take very long..." 

Touko-san's eyes are sympathetic but her expression is still stern. She pets his hair. "Oh, Takashi-kun... Why didn't you say something? You could have come to us for help, at least told us where you were going and why."

A lump wells up in Natsume's throat. He does his best to swallow it down. "You were asleep. I didn't want to bother you."

"It's no bother! We're family. You can always come to us for help," Touko-san says gently. "Okay?"

Natsume nods and looks away. The lump is growing uncontrollably, crushing his throat and lungs until his eyes water. Touko-san seems to sense his distress and gives him one last pat on the head.

"I'll go make you some soup. You just stay here and rest." Then she turns to Nyanko-sensei. "As for you, mister..." She picks him up and holds him up to her face. "No more wandering far from home in bad weather, do you understand? Or there will be no more shrimp for you!"

Nyanko-sensei's jaw drops, his devastation clear. Touko-san sets him down next to Natsume and leaves the room. 

"How- how am I the bad guy?! No shrimp??? And after I brought you home safe and sound? That's it! Natsume, next time Touko-san makes shrimp you have to give me all of yours!"

Natsume huffs a laugh, which devolves into a coughing fit. He is so thirsty. Water, he needs water. He tries to sit up but the world sways dangerously. A tiny paw presses him back down easily.

"Idiot! Lie back down! Geeze, why do you have to be so troublesome? What do you want? Water? Fine. I'll get it for you. But first..."

WAP! A paw strikes his cheek. "Don't you ever, EVER do that again!"

Natsume is confused. Never do what again? Go out into a dangerous storm? Get hit by a branch and fall down a hill? Form an empathetic connection with him? What?

"You're going to have to be more specific, sensei. A lot kinda happened that night," Natsume responds drily. Literally. He wants water so bad.

His sensei takes his face in his paws, forcing Natsume to look him in the eye. "Any of it! But most importantly, don't EVER give me your spiritual power. I don't need it! Or did you forget that I'm a daiyoukai?!"

Natsume shakes his head. "No, sensei. You were badly hurt. I could feel it. I could feel your pain, sensei! I couldn't do nothing!"

"I know what you felt! I could feel you too! You forged that stupid connection and guess what... It goes both ways! You pushed all your spiritual energy into me and I got to feel you fading. It felt like you were dying, Natsume! It felt like you were dying inside me!" 

Oh. 

Natsume gently takes his sensei's paws into his hands and pulls them away from his face. "Sensei... I'm sorry, sensei. I didn't know."

The cat sniffs. "Yeah, well, now you do. So don't do it again."

Natsume smiles and sits up. He sways a little but manages to remain upright. Gathering his sensei into his arms, he holds the cat against his chest. "I can't promise that but... I'm okay. We're okay. We survived the storm."

Cat and boy stay like that for a long time. Outside, the sun shines out clear and bright. Green skies have turned blue, the breeze a gentle caress. The storm has passed and left boy and cat to their peaceful days.

**Author's Note:**

> And that's a wrap!
> 
> This work was originally going to be completely different and based more on my own experiences with tornadoes but the characters had their own ideas. I did take some creative liberties in that I allowed the characters to actually see the tornado where it likely would have been impossible for them to do so in reality since they were in forested hills at night in the rain. But, The Drama required it. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
